Introduction

This guide is aimed at locating current and historical news sources: daily and weekly newspapers and electronic media. It includes annual directories of news media, directories or catalogs for library holdings of historical newspapers, licensed databases which have digitized news content, and web directories to news media websites.

Icon Key

$ = Paid access

F = Free access

E= Available electronically

I= Includes international coverage

V= Includes video

P= Available in print

Directories of News Media

Bacon's Newspaper/Magazine Directory, Chicago, I.L.: Cision, 2010- Includes all daily and community newspapers in the U.S. and Canada plus trade and consumer magazines, newsletters and journals. If purchased with the Radio/TV/Cable directory updates are available with "Quicksearch" for about $100. Vendor site: http://us.cision.com/products_services/bacons_media_directories_2010.asp

Benn's Media, Tonbridge, Kent: Benn Business Information Services, 1993-. ISSN 0968-4557
Published under various names since 1846, includes listings of newspapers and broadcast media around the world. There is a special emphasis on the United Kingdom in one volume; other volumes on Europe and The World. Vendor site: http://www.wlrstore.com/benns/index.aspx

Bowker's News Media Directory, New Providence, N.J.: Bowker, 2003-. ISSN 0000-1783
Previously known as Working Press of the Nation (1947-2002). Focus is entirely on the U.S., with three annual volumes: Newspapers (daily, weekly and specialized, plus newspapers and features syndicates); Magazines and Newsletters; and TV and Radio (including broadcast and cable networks as well as individual stations. Extensive indexes. Vendor site: http://www.bowker.com/index.php/component/content/article/2/32

Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media. Detroit: Gale, 1990-. ISSN 1048-7972.
Includes U.S. and Canadian newspapers, radio and television stations, and cable systems. Under previous titles has published continuously since 1869. Current directory also available online.
Vendor site: http://www.galegroup.com/

Rowell's & Ayer's American Newspaper Directory (1869-1922) (F E)
From the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room at The Library of Congress, these are digitized directories of American newspapers (1869-1922) in image format with both low and high quality images in PDF Format. Geo. P. Rowell and Co.'s American Newspaper Directory was first published in 1869. In the 1880's it dropped the Rowell portion of the name. In the early 1900s, it was absorbed into Ayer's American Newspaper Annual
Vendor site: http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/news_research_tools/ayersdirectory.html

SRDS International Media Guide: Newspapers worldwide. Des Plaines, IL: SRDS, 2001- . ISSN 1070-3195
Lists more than 1700 international newspapers outside the United States, followed by listings by region, country and city. Also available online. Vendor site: http://www.srds.com/frontMatter/ips/category/library.html

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (fulltext 1880-1922, information 1690-present) (F E)
Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress National Digital Newspaper Program. Related title: see Newspaper Title Directory, below.
Vendor site: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

ICON: International Coalition on Newspapers Center for Research Libraries, 1999-. Provides free bibliographical access to global news to improve access. Includes a database of international newspapers. http://icon.crl.edu/

Library of American Broadcasting University of Maryland Libraries archival collection of audio-video recordings, broadcast transcripts, pamphlets, periodicals, photos and other materials focusing on the history of broadcasting. Originally part of the NAB from 1972-1994. Site: http://www.lib.umd.edu/LAB/about.html

Newspaper Title Directory(from the Library of Congress' Chronicling America)(F E)
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/titles/
Updates the United States Newspaper Program National Union List, Dublin, Ohio: OCLC, 1999, 5th edition. ISBN 1556532814
Originally a microfiche product of based on a cooperative national effort among the states and the federal government to locate, catalog, and preserve on microfilm newspapers published in the United States from the eighteenth century to the present. Includes bibliographic, location and holdings information is derived from the collections of newspaper repositories--libraries, archives, and historical societies--that participate in the Program. Expanded and superseded in March 2007 (in BETA) as part of Chronicling America, a joint project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Vendor site: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

OCLC World Cat ($ E F)
Holdings reported from more than 12,000 OCLC affiliated libraries worldwide: academic, public, governmental, private. Provides basic information on titles and beginning dates, though it is frequently necessary to consult the individual library catalog for detailed holdings. In 2006 absorbed the RLG Union Catalog. Available by subscription and also free as the Open WorldCat
Vendor site: http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/default.htm

Aggregated News Sources: Current Content

Note: Most of these databases can be searched collectively or limited to specific publications.

Access World News ($ E I) Dates vary. More than 1500 news sources on countries worldwide, including 650 in the U.S. Largely newspapers for the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, other English-speaking countries. For the rest of the world mostly wire services and BBC newspaper digests. From Newsbank.
Vendor site: http://www.newsbank.com

Alt-Press Watch ($ E)
1995-present. Full text database of newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press. Provides a valuable new source of coverage, viewpoints and perspectives to complement and challenge the coverage of the mainstream media.
Vendor site: http://proquest.com

Dow Jones Factiva. 1979-present($ E I)
Dates of coverage vary Provides a single point of access to a deep archive of news and business information from over 28,000 sources from 159 countries in 22 languages, including local, national and international newspapers, leading business magazines, trade publications, and newswires. Company analysis with access to historical market data, interactive charting, financial statements, and company reports from D&B and Investext. Continuously updated.
Vendor site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/factiva.shtml

Aggregated News Sources: Regional and Ethnic Press

Canadian Newsstand. 1977-present ($ E I). Updated daily. Contains access to over 150 Canadian newspapers including The Globe and Mail (1977-present), The Gazette (1985-present), Ottawa Citizen (1985-present), The Province (1989-present) and the Winnipeg Free Press (2006-present). Also available in French. Vendor site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detai/canadian_newsstand.shtml

Foreign Broadcast Information Service Electronic Index (FBIS) ($ E I)
1975-1996. Index to the FBIS Daily Reports issued by the U.S. Government on political, economic, scientific and cultural issues and events worldwide. Translations of broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements Reports are available on microfiche. For broadcasts from 1994 to the present, see World News Connection)
Vendor site: http://www.newsbank.com

World News Connection ($ E I)
1994-present. Translations and summaries by U.S. government of international magazine, newspaper, and newswire stories, transcripts from speeches and radio and television broadcasts, and nonclassified technical reports. Successor to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). For index to 1975-1996 broadcasts use Foreign Broadcast Information Service Electronic Index available from Newsbank; publications are available on microfiche.
Vendor site: http://wnc.dialog.com

Transcripts, News Monitors, and News Analysis

Access World News: Research Collection ($ E I)
Contains transcripts from local and national United States radio and television productions. Vendor site: http://www.newsbank.com

Critical Mention and Critical Mention iTV. (30 day rolling backfile) ($ E I)
Over 500 television and radio broadcasts can be monitored. Arabic broadcasts have English translations. Includes Nielsen audience data and real-time alerts. The iTV subscription contains searchable television news video clips. Vendor site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/criticalmention.shtml

LexisNexis Academic ($ E I)
Contains transcripts from major United States radio and television productions. The LexisNexis wiki has a help screen for searching this section of the database.
Vendor site: http://web.lexisnexis.com

News Feeds, Digests and Wires

AllAfrica.com (F E)
Online distributor of African news and information, posting over 1000 stories daily in English and French and offering a diversity of multi-lingual streaming programming as well as over 900,000 articles in our searchable archive (which includes the archive of Africa News Service dating from 1997).
Site: http://AllAfrica.com/

AP.org (F E)
Global news network that delivers news to all media platforms and formats. It was founded in 1846 and is headquartered in New York.
Site: http://www.ap.org/

New America Media (F E)
Founded by Pacific News Service in 1996, New American Media is a nationwide association of over 3,000 ethnic media organizations that promotes the voices of ethnic minorities, immigrants and other marginalized communities.
Site: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/

UPI.com (F E) United Press International has provided information to media outlets since 1907. It is a global operation that licenses content to print outlets.
Site: http://www.upi.com/

Historical Coverage

19th Century US Newspapers ($ E)
Dates of coverage vary Includes page images of several hundred newspapers in all states. Largely limited to the 19th century, though some titles extend a few years into the 20th. Dates of coverage range from scattered months to many years. Little overlap with the comparable America's Historical Newspapers.
Vendor site: http://www.gale.com/

America's Historical Newspapers. 1690-1922 ($ E)
Page images of more than 1300 newspapers from all 50 states. Previously known as Early American Newspapers, and based on the microfilm collection of the same name. Some titles include many decades of coverage, others only a few issues. Part of the Readex Archive of Americana digital collection. Little overlap with the comparable 19th Century US Newspapers Digital Archive.
Vendor site: http://www.newsbank.com/libraries/product.cfm?product=25

Museum.TV (Museum of Broadcast Communications) (free with registration E V)
Contains over 8,500 hours of digitized radio and television content. Site: http://archives.museum.tv/

Proquest Historical Newspapers. 1764-2008($ E)
Full text and full image articles for newspapers back to the 18th or 19th century. The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue--cover to cover--in downloadable PDF files. Major papers include The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Christian Science Monitor. Additions include a Black Newspapers Collection (9 titles including the Chicago Defender) and the Civil War Era (newspapers and pamphlets covering the slavery and anti-slavery movements of the 1840s and 1850s). Vendor site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/pq-hist-news.shtml

Vanderbilt Television News Archive ($ E V)
1968-present. Evening network news summaries (not transcripts) for ABC, CBS and NBC from 1968, CNN from 1995. Streaming video of CNN broadcasts. Videotape can be borrowed for a fee. Non-subscribers to the database can register to search news abstracts. Based on the videotape archives maintained by Vanderbilt University.
Vendor site: http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu

World Newspaper Archive ($ E I)
Searchable historic newspapers from around the globe including Africa, Europe, Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East. Newsbank created this product with the Center for Research Libraries.
Vendor site: http://www.newsbank.com/readex/index.cfm?content=343

Directories of Links to News Websites

Best Bets:

ABYZ News Linkshttp://www.abyznewslinks.com/
Links to newspapers, broadcast and other news media around the world, by country: local, national, and also "foreign sources" published on each country. United States covered by state.

HomeTownNews.comhttp://hometownnews.com
More than 2600 links to "to all known daily and weekly U.S. newspapers with Web sites. You may either select a state or click on a state on the map.

Newspapers in Latin Americahttp://lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/news/
This page has links to newspapers in Latin America and around the world, including Spanish-language newspapers in the U.S. Also links to broadcast media. Maintained by LANIC, the Latin American Network Information Center.

Gebbie Press: The All-In-One Media Directoryhttp://www.gebbieinc.com/
A comprehensive directory for working media professionals. The site includes links to daily and weekly newspapers, radio stations, television stations, magazines, business papers, black press, Latino press and news syndicates.

German Studies Web: German-language newspapers and other news sourceshttp://www.dartmouth.edu/~wess/wessnews.html
A compilation of links to German-language news sources on the web. Newspapers, television and audio sites from Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Maintained by ACRL's Western European Studies Section.